Shelly Kittleson, American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad last week, has been released, an Iraqi official said on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah said in a statement that it will release American journalist Shelly Kittleson. The group said its decision came “in appreciation of the patriotic stances of the outgoing prime minister,” Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, without giving more details. It added that “this initiative will not be repeated in the future.”
Kataib Hezbollah had not previously acknowledged that it was the one responsible for Kittleson’s abduction, although both US and Iraqi officials had pointed fingers at the group.
Know all aboutย Shelly Kittleson
Kittleson, 49, a freelance journalist, had lived abroad for years before the kidnapping, using Rome as her base for a time and building a respected journalism career across the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Like many freelancers, she often worked on a shoestring budget and without the protections afforded by large news organisations to staff. She had entered Iraq again shortly before her abduction. US officials have said that they warned her multiple times of threats against her, but that she did not want to leave.
Iraqi officials say two cars were involved in kidnapping Shellyย
Iraqi officials have said that two cars were involved in the kidnapping, one of which crashed while being pursued near the town of al-Haswa in Babil province, southwest of Baghdad. The journalist was then transferred to a second car that fled the scene.
Three Iraqi officials said earlier on Tuesday that attempts to negotiate her release had run into obstacles. The two Iraqi security officials and one official from the pro-Iran Coordination Framework political bloc spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak about the sensitive case publicly.
One of the security officials said that an official with the Popular Mobilisation Forces, a coalition of Iran-backed militias that is nominally under the control of the Iraqi military, had been tasked with communicating with the abductors to secure Kittleson’s release but had run into difficulties in communicating with the Kataib Hezbollah leadership.
“The primary challenge is that the leaders of the Kataib militia – specifically, the commanders of the battalions – are nowhere to be found. No one knows their whereabouts, and the process of establishing contact with them is extremely complex,” they said.
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US journalist Shelly Kittleson abducted in Iraq; security forces launch search operation | VIDEO